Wednesday, October 17, 2012

#WorkAnywhere - How to protect privacy

It was fascinating to read a bit of a fellow passenger's report off their laptop screen in front of me on the train this morning. It was marked CONFIDENTIAL and, once I saw that, it took a real effort of will to tear my eyes away!

The technology frees us up to work pretty much anywhere, and we can get caught up into a multi-media engagement with work, or private, situations that are many miles way from our present location.

But as we concentrate on being an active participant in a conference call, and sometimes have to talk loudly to make a contribution over the background noise, it's vital to remember who else might be listening in.

Here are some of the principles I advise people to follow:

Be aware of who else can see your screen

Be conscious of who might be listening in

Be aware of your present surroundings, not just the remote situation you're trying to engage with

Be security conscious and keep valuable devices - and the data on them - physically secure, in your presence or locked down

Keep everything you can protected with passwords and remote-wipe capability